Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Free Range Chicken 3...The Toddler Strikes Back

OK so here's the thing. There's something about that toddler bed she doesn't like. I think it's the feeling of being more exposed. She's OK laying in there as long as we're near her but if we attempt to leave the room, she jumps off and runs over to us. Last night, after a story on my lap, we tried it again. She'd lay down and look like she was drifting off, but as soon as I got up to leave, bam, here she comes. At one point she got up and went to the futon on the other side of the room and I thought OK, I'll leave her there and see what happens. A minute after I left the room, she started crying. We went back and forth on this for about an hour and a half, after which Gregg took over. Eventually, he took her in bed with him trying to just get her to fall asleep. By 11 PM he came downstairs with her, saying "Not only is she not going to sleep but now she's bouncing off the walls. She needs some activity time to drain the battery". Was she ever. For an hour, she was buzzing around the living room, climbing, jumping, and chatting non stop. Does she have an espresso machine hidden up there someplace? Eventually we snuggled up on the couch and by midnight she fell asleep hard. I put her back in the toddler bed and there she stayed until 5:30 when Gregg checked on her before leaving for work. When I peeked in at about 6:30, she had moved to the futon and was sleeping there.

We'll try it again tonight. We talked about putting the crib back together, but it's just too dangerous having her climb out of it. We don't want to push her, but we think she's ready, and she'll get it soon enough. She'd better; I'm running out of pithy titles for these posts.

7 comments:

These posts have been hilarious. :) Okay, probably not so hilarious to you and Gregg as you try to put her to sleep. ;) Could one of you try sleeping in her room on the futon? Not sure if that would help? I hope she gets the hang of her new bed very soon. :)

As we learned the hard way... keep it up and don't give in to letting her come in bed with you. She'll figure that out quick and fuss until it happens. Just keep reassuring her she's ok, give her some stuffed animals to snuggle with maybe.

Your "expresso machine" comment made me laugh out loud. Bed transitions are nuts, esp. when they figure out that they "had us at hello". eek. It all eventually passes -- of course, so will you. My oldest wanted her own bed at 2, period; done, perfect. Son would have stayed in his crib 'til his feet stuck through; I moved him at 3.5ish and he finally started sleeping all night at 4 (but that was the same as his crib). Youngest loved her toddler bed at 3 and just moved to a big girl bed at 4-3/4 but still doesn't sleep all night. Not sure what I do to my children. I was lucky, though, that none climbed out of their cribs, so they just stayed locked in there until I pried them out at whatever age they or *I* was ready. Ms. S sounds like she's wanting to run the show and with both of you wonderful Daddies, she'll eventually calm down. Hugs, Dads.

Not sure if this would work, not sure if you're looking for assvice, but here goes. We took down one side of the crib first and made a pseudo guard rail. Bed was in the lowest position. Our little terror, I mean child, started climbing out of the crib around 18 months. This acted as a transition. Or what about just placing the mattress straight onto the floor?